October Story - A Sugar-Free Halloween (Chapter 2) (Patreon)

AUTHOR'S NOTE: I would suggest you re-read the last quarter of Chapter 1. I changed some stuff slightly, notably "Annie" is now "Kayla".

The suburbs around Brappaport were quiet middle-class income house, the stuff one saw in movies like Home Alone and Hocus Pocus. The air carried a crisp scent of leaves and chimney smoke. Emilia loved that smell.

As they left the college grounds and ventured down the sidewalk in the dimly lit streets, they came up with the rules for the drinking game. Take a drink every time someone asks your age, suggesting that you’re too old for trick-or-treating. Take a drink every time you get candy corn. Take a drink every time you get candy that you hate. Take a drink every time a Halloween decoration makes you jump or creeped out. Take a drink every time you see someone with the same costume as yours.

They figured the rules spanned from easy to difficult, as they wanted some excuse to get drunk.

Emilia realized she would get drunk in no time. Anything, literally anything, would scare her. She once house-sat for someone and couldn’t get a wink of sleep thinking someone had broken into the house. She was the first person to jump that night after noticing a body-shaped trash bag hanging from a tree branch. She had seriously thought some sicko hung up a dead body for all to see.

“You know,” Lawrence said, “they found a dead man once who was lying there on his front porch for weeks because they thought he was a Halloween decoration.”

Emilia moaned. “No. Don’t say that. Please, don’t say that.”
 She had to take a swig of rum from Rob’s flask after one of those candy bowls made her scream when the animatronic hand lashed out at her.

It became pretty obvious to most people who answered the door that Emilia was too old, based on the fact that her Raggedy Ann costume was tight around her child-bearing hips. So she had to drink for those instances too.

Melissa wasn’t a fan of many pieces of candy. She was more into sweets like cake and ice cream. She was the second person to get drunk the fastest after having to hand over all the Almond Joys, Kit-Kat bars, 3 Musketeer bars, and even Snicker bars.

“Do you even fucking eat anything?” Lawrence said. “What do you even have?”

“Hershey’s.”

“That’s it?”

“Shut up!”

They came upon a house with no decorations on it. The lights were still on and they saw movement. However, there was not a single decoration on the lawn, the walls, or the front porch.

“Ah,” Rob said, “they must be Protestants or something. Let’s go to the next house.”

But curious, Emilia wanted to knock anyway. There was nothing scary to her about this house, and better to have more candy anyway.

She rapped on the door and waited.

It took some time for someone to answer. Emilia was on the verge of turning away when an old man opened the door, bent-back and quivering.

“Yes?” he whispered.

Emilia started to get a weird vibe. She said, “Oh. Trick or treat!”

The old man stared at her blankly. She made the realization that he had no idea what was going on, and most likely was senile and didn’t know what day it was.

This realization also hit the old man, as his eyes widened and his voice raised. “Oh. That’s today? Oh gosh. Oh dear. I don’t have anything.”

Emilia started backing away. “Oh, it’s fine! That’s okay. I hope you have a goodnight!”

“No, no, I always have treats for the kids. Just wait here. I know I have something. I—oh dear. Just hold on.” The old man kept muttering and then left her at the front porch as he hobbled along. She felt so bad for him. Old people always tugged at her heartstrings.

“HEY WHAT’S THE HOLD-UP?” Lawrence cried out. He and the others were on the other side of the street to comb the houses there.

Emilia waved them away. “Just—I’ll catch up!”

The old man hobbled back to her and carried two whole bags of gummy bears. Emilia said, “Oh, no, you don’t have to do that. Really!”

“No, I insist. I’m so glad you knocked on my door. Nobody else has even though it’s Halloween. I thought I put something up out there but I guess not. You know I’m eighty-seven now. My mind isn’t what it used to be, and I--”

The old man roped her into his life story. Emilia nodded off and ignored Lawrence’s shouts to catch up. She half-listened to the old man, something about having Alzheimer’s and owning a black dog, because she really didn’t want to be left alone on an empty street but felt rude to cut the old man off.

“Well, have a goodnight, sir!” she interjected.

“Ah, yes. Have a goodnight. Merry Christmas!”

Emilia blinked twice but still nodded and waved him.

She marveled at her catch – two whole bags of gummy bears. Her sweet tooth itched for them. They would be a pleasant treat for later.

#

Smack in the middle of the suburb was a playground. After getting a good fill of candy in their bags, Emilia and her friends hung out by the swings drinking and smoking. Lawrence was the one who passed the joint around. Emilia never smoked from a joint before, only a bong.

When Lawrence offered it to her, Emilia hesitated.

“It’s just weed,” Lawrence said, smirking.

She looked to Melissa for guidance. Melissa shrugged and said, “Do what you want. I’ll be here. I ain’t smoking anything.”

“Aw, but I don’t want you babysitting me.”

“It’s Halloween. We’re gonna be out all night. What do you think I’m gonna do? Stay in my room all night? Nah.”

Emilia took a hit. She didn’t cough as violently as the first time, getting used to it by then.

Instead of taking the hit, Melissa hit the bottle. Lawrence was in fact already 21 years old. College was weird like that. Some people were really young, like sixteen, while others were much older (either held back or started late). He bought several six-packs of Blue Moon.

Melissa downed a bottle and, as usual, casually belched out loud.

Rob, Lawrence, and Kayla all jumped. Kayla in fact shrieked, then laughed.

“Oh my god!” she said. “It sounded so throaty I thought that was a wild animal at first!”

“Jesus Christ,” Lawrence said.

“Oh,” Melissa said, dully. “I forgot that I don’t hang out with you that much. So you don’t know.”

“She burps all the time like that,” Emilia said.

“Yeah. It’s just my thing.”

They swung idly at the playground until they knocked out all the beers, Melissa belching throughout. Kayla seemed to admire her burps. She stared wide-eyed and said breathlessly, “Wow. I wish I could do that.”

Lawrence scrunched up his nose. “You wish you could be gross?”

“My burps are always so puny! They’re just little ‘acks’!”

Melissa leaned back and unleashed a beast.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRP!

At the very end she patted her stomach. Emilia eyed how tight the belt around her waist seemed. Melissa fidgeted with it and said, “Made some more room.”

Before they left the playground, Emilia started to get hungry. The munchies were hitting her. They were mild at first but now she was so hungry she could eat at a buffet. She looked down at her bag and frowned. She wanted to leave these treats for later, but her hunger pangs were too great. She reached down and started snacking on everything.

“Heyyyy,” Rob said, eyes glazed, “the diner should be open. Wanna go there?”

They all agreed in dull murmurs. The sound of more food made Emilia’s stomach gurgle. They all got up and staggered together in the direction of town, away from the suburb. Emilia’s sense of balance and proportion were becoming disoriented. In a good way though. She knew she couldn’t make a habit out of getting fucked up, but whenever she had the opportunity, she savored it as much as she could.

“Are you eating the whole bag?” Melissa half-cried.

Emilia hadn’t really paid attention to what she was eating. She was just taking candy out and munching on them, talking with her mouth full. When the bag was empty, she opened up the plastic bag of gummy bears the old man gave her.

“You’re gonna spoil your dinner!” Melissa said.

“No, I’m not,” Emilia replied, mouth full of gummy bears.

She gorged on both bags in minutes before they got to the diner.